We have all heard about cool, high-tech devices for the future, and the Gorilla wants to share his recent discovery with you. Chances are, you have probably heard about the walk up credit card machines that let you simply place your credit card in front of the scanning light beam, and presto, you’re done. The Gorilla recently used one, and was somewhat impressed. But at High-Tech Burrito, a Bay Area food chain, you don’t even need to do that. If you are craving a warm juicy burrito, all you need is your hunger and your forefinger. This is no joke. Many new and trendy restaurant chains are getting on board with the new technology, which is simpler than ever to use. The High Tech Burrito chain is one of over 2100 stores in 44 states to use the new finger touch system. The company is called Pay By Touch, and it uses biometric identification- or body-based measurements unique to each person- instead of cash or credit cards to pay. The technology is cutting edge convenience for customers, but critics feel it is an invasion of privacy and may infringe upon identity security.
“Paying by card is antiquated,” Pay By Touch COO John Morris said from the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. “It’s a constant from a long time ago. But people love [biometrics], people love the convenience — it’s like a free service that speeds them through the line. They like the security of it. He goes on to make a very good point that with a check, for instance, it is in the hands of several people before it goes into your account and many people see it and see the personal information on it. With the Pay By Touch System, it is very personal and extremely secure. The system works like this: When a person enrolls in the system, one fingerprint from each hand is scanned and the information is then stored in a top security IBM data center. But what about security? Well, Pay By Touch has that covered. To prevent a data leak, Pay By Touch hires “ethical hackers” to try to break in to the system. The Gorilla was a skeptic at first, but once he read all of the extensive data on the system and its meticulous security measures taken in order to prevent security breaches, he must concede that the Pay By Touch System is simply genius. Just one question though….can they scan a Gorilla’s finger too?